Crossing The Meridian
by Eventhorizon7
Summary: Jacob and Selmak attempt to heal the radiation sickness inflicted upon Daniel Jackson, but at what cost? Please note that this will eventually become a Sam/Daniel romantic pairing, please feel free to skip this story if that is not to your taste.
1. Chapter 1

Author: Eventhorizon 7

Rating: M (Mature Themes)

Categories: Angst/Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Romance

Pairing: Sam/Daniel

Content Warning: Profanity/ Adult Themes/ Sexual Situations

Spoilers: Possible seasons 1-5, but mainly concentrated around Meridian.

Summary: Jacob and Selmak attempt to heal the radiation sickness inflicted upon Daniel Jackson, but at what cost?

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters they belong to Stargate SG-1 and MGM studios etc. I am making no money from them and sadly never will. If I did own them, believe me Sam and Daniel would have had much more fun with each other.

Feedback: If you have the time please leave a review as they are like oxygen to authors and breathe life into new stories.

Author's Notes: This is my take on the question of what would have happened if Jacob hadn't stopped the healing process in the episode Meridian.

This is a work in progress and I promise I will try and get subsequent chapters out at regular intervals as real life and my muse allow.

Enjoy!

**Crossing The Meridian**

**Chapter 1**

Jacob Carter strode purposefully along the cold grey corridors of the SGC. His face grim, his mind fighting a steadily losing battle with his emotions. Inside he could feel Selmak softly trying to comfort him, the way he always did whenever Jacob was in emotional pain. However, this time he wasn't sure if his symbiote would be able to offer him the solace that he so desperately needed.

Daniel Jackson was dying.

George's words had cut through him like a knife, slicing seamlessly through the decades old military defences, to stab him painfully in the heart. At first he had thought that he had misheard him, but one look at the desolate features of Colonel O'Neill had confirmed his old friend's dire statement.

Why was it that life could be so unfair at times? Why in all the universe did fate have to deal such a savage blow to someone so undeserving of that fate as Daniel Jackson?

Jacob had not known the young archaeologist for that long, only a few years, but in that short time he had come to admire and respect him. He had been amazed at his intellectual acumen, his breadth of knowledge and his unyielding appetite to further that education. What Daniel didn't know about Earth's ancient civilizations and their Goa'uld counterparts just wasn't worth knowing in the first place.

He was also a man of honour and moral fortitude, something increasingly rare in the twenty-first century. Sometimes his stubborn insistence on doing the right thing had led to heated discussions between the two men, especially when embarked upon a deadly mission, but it hadn't gotten in the way of their burgeoning friendship.

Jacob trained his eyes upon the long corridor ahead, refusing to meet the hopeful gazes of the personnel that he passed on his way to the infirmary. Daniel was a respected and popular member of the command and it was obvious that everyone was expecting him and his Tok'ra symbiote to perform some kind of miracle.

Jacob wasn't so sure that he would be able to oblige.

"How long has it been?" Jacob broke the uncomfortable silence that had accompanied them on their journey from the gate room.

"A couple of days." Hammond glanced at his old friend, tiredness and worry deepening the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. "We've been trying to reach the Tok'ra or the Asgaard since his return from the planet."

"What's the nature of his illness?"

"It isn't an illness." O'Neill replied sourly, a hint of bitterness in his voice. "It's radiation sickness."

"Radiation sickness!?" Jacob stopped in his tracks, turning to pin the Colonel with a withering stare. "Were all of you exposed?"

"She's alright, Jacob." Hammond's voice was soft, denoting the fact that he knew that his friend's first concern would always be for his daughter. "Neither she nor the rest of SG-1 were exposed, only Doctor Jackson."

Jacob took a moment for that information to sink in, before nodding his head and resuming his march toward the infirmary.

Thank God Sam was alright.

Immediately a wave of guilt at his own selfishness descended upon him, wrapping him in a shroud of self loathing.

Didn't everyone in the command take the same risks as Sam? Didn't every member of a front line unit play Russian roulette with their lives each and every time that they stepped through the Stargate? How could he put the health and safety of his daughter before those that stood shoulder to shoulder by her side?

'_Easily," Selmak's voice drifted softly across his consciousness, "because she is your daughter, Jacob. As a father you have every right to put her first, it's only human to want to protect her. Don't be so hard on yourself."_

"_That's easy for you to say, Sel."Jacob admonished his symbiote. "You haven't been a hard ass military officer for forty years. It hasn't been driven into you to put country before self and family." _

"_No, my friend," Selmak's tone became patient, like that of a teacher imparting important knowledge to a recalcitrant pupil. "but I have been an observer of your kind for countless centuries and it is in observing this tenacious tendency of humankind to protect their own, that will one day rid us all of the Goa'uld." _

Suitably chastised, Jacob grunted softly under his breath as he stepped through the doorway of the infirmary.

Eyes from every corner of the room seemed to gravitate toward him. Patients sat straighter in their beds and scrutinized him as he walked past them. Nurses and doctors interrupted their rounds to stare at him, some softly whispering their hope that the ex General and Tok'ra freedom fighter might somehow be able to pull off the impossible.

He just wished to God that they didn't have such high expectations of him.

Silently he followed George and Colonel O'Neill toward the isolation room situated at the other end of the infirmary. As he crossed the threshold, he took a deep breath and was immediately assaulted by the rancid odour of necrotising flesh. He strode further into the room, biting back the gagging reflex that constricted his throat, threatening the return of his last meal.

As though some sixth sense had informed her of her father's arrival, Sam turned around to face him. Jacob had to stifle a gasp, shocked by her appearance. She looked fragile, much thinner than he had remembered seeing her before, as though she had gone days without proper food. Her complexion was waxen, her soft blue eyes red rimmed and puffy from crying and deep dark circles underscored them from lack of sleep.

Jacob had not seen her look so forlorn since the day that he had told her of her mother's death. It made his heart clench painfully in his chest to see her look that way again now. He crossed to her and wrapped his arms around her slender body in a hug.

"Hey, Sam." He pulled her further against him. "I'm so sorry."

She pulled away from him, brandishing something toward him as she did so. He felt a warm metallic object pushed into his hands.

"I tried this, but it didn't work."

Jacob looked down at the Goa'uld healing device now cradled in his hands. He could feel his own body reacting to the nacquada within it, feel its power coursing through his blood like a narcotic. He could feel Selmak's now heightened state of alertness as his symbiote became aware of the device in his hand. He pushed his fingers through the hand hold and clenched them around its circumference, turning it around so that he could look at it and judge whether it had been damaged.

It seemed in good working order.

"We'll do our best." He gave Sam a soft comforting smile before turning away from her, toward the bed that housed her mortally injured friend.

Daniel lay motionless, his body wrapped from head to toe in white gauze bandages. Yellow puss and blood flecked some of the dressings and the stench of his body's rapid decay filled the ex General's nostrils. In a sad irony, Daniel looked like one of the ancient Egyptian mummies that he had studied so meticulously.

Jacob glanced across the bed, only to be met with the anxious brown eyes of Janet Fraiser. She looked away from him, toward the healing device in his hand, with a mixture of undisguised scepticism and desperate hope.

Taking a deep breath, he concentrated his mind upon the healing device, narrowing his field of consciousness. Immediately he felt the connection establish itself , the soft electrical vibrations coursing down his nerve endings and into his fingers. Vaguely he could feel Selmak's presence in his mind, opening him up to the formidable knowledge of Tok'ra healing practices that his symbiote had stored in his memory. The device began to glow and Jacob centred it over Daniel's inert body.

A shaft of warm amber light caressed Daniel's abdomen, pressing into his damaged tissues, coursing through his injured organs and depleted blood cells. Through his link with his symbiote Jacob could visualise the extent of the damage done to the young archaeologist's body, could almost feel the struggle between life and death that was taking place within.

His symbiote was appalled by the extent of the young man's injuries and Jacob had to wonder what the hell had happened to Daniel for him to wind up like this? The light from the healing device slowly faded away.

"_His condition is grave." Through Jacob's eyes Selmak saw Dr Fraiser flinch slightly before sweeping her gaze forlornly across Daniel's body. "I do not know if I can save him," the symbiote hesitated briefly, considering his next words, "and even if I can, I do not believe I can restore his full healthy state."_

Silence descended upon the room, broken only by the soft beeping of the hospital machinery that monitored Daniel's vital signs. Jacob looked at the faces around him, noting their anguished stares. Looking back toward his daughter, his was met with her determined blue eyes.

"Do what you can."

They exchanged stares for a long moment, Jacob wondering whether she truly grasped the full extent of the severity of the situation. Her tear filled eyes continued to plead with him, begging him to do whatever he could to try and save the life of her best friend.

Turning back toward the bed, Jacob relaxed his mind and allowed the healing properties of the device to flow through his body. The amber light returned, its hue more intense this time as it concentrated on healing rather than diagnosis.

In his mind's eye Jacob saw the damaged organs slowly begin to heal themselves, their liquefying state gradually solidifying once again into their truest forms. Damaged blood cells restored themselves, grotesque looking lesions slowly began to disappear and depleted nerve endings started to fire again as all traces of necrotising began to gradually fade away.

"Jacob?" O'Neill's soft voice drifted across the room, breaking the Tok'ra from his concentration. "Stop."

"Are you serious?" Jacob turned his head toward the Colonel, wondering at the reason behind his sudden halting of the healing process. All that he could make out was a sense of puzzlement flickering across Jack's brown eyes, as though the Colonel himself was having trouble reconciling his last statement. Jack frowned, his eyes narrowing into small slits, his head tilting slightly as though he were listening to an inner voice. The internal struggle continued for a long moment before he finally shook his head and focused once again upon Jacob.

"Never mind. Keep doing what you're doing."

"Are you sure, Jack, because for a minute there…" Jacob's voice mirrored the Colonel's earlier puzzlement.

"Yeah, I'm sure." He looked away from the ex-General toward the motionless body lying upon the bed. "Do what you have to do to bring him back."

"Anyone else want to tell me what to do?" Jacob looked around the faces of all those standing around the bedside. Dr Fraiser looked at him briefly before sliding her eyes away from him back toward Daniel. George and Teal'c stood stoically as though prepared to accept whatever decision won out. Lastly Jacob turned toward Sam, whose tear streaked face and piercing blue eyes told him everything that he needed to know.

Sighing softly to himself, he returned his attention to the bed. The amber light intensified as he once again focused his concentration on the briefly interrupted healing process.

Long minutes passed in silence, the soft humming of the device ebbing and flowing as Jacob continued his slow movements along the length of Daniel's body. He could feel sweat beading his brow, his forehead furrowing into ever deepening lines of concentration. From time to time Daniel's torso would arch toward the light as though drawn to it like a paperclip to a magnet, soft inarticulate moans slipping from his chafed lips.

After thirty minutes the amber light softened and faded away. Jacob swayed on his feet unsteadily before taking a deep cleansing breath and wiped the perspiration from his brow with a sweep of his hand.

"_The initial healing process is complete." Selmak's voice sounded weary and strained as though the efforts of the past half an hour had depleted his energy resources. "The most life threatening of his injuries have been temporarily stabilized, but the process will need to be repeated over the next twenty four hours before his body returns to a stable state."_

"Thank you, Selmak." Sam's voice sounded brittle in the silent confines of the room.

"_Do not thank me yet, Samantha." Selmak's tone was clinical, devoid of any emotion. "As you say in your culture, 'he is not out of the woods yet.'" _

"But he's better…right?" Jack's words had an edge to them. His concerned stare drifting from Jacob to Daniel and back again. "He's going to be okay?"

Jacob lowered his head in the telltale sign that when he spoke, he would once again become the General and not the Tok'ra resistance fighter.

"Jack, his injuries are severe. I don't know what the hell happened on that planet, I don't think I want to know, but right now all we've accomplished is to stabilise him. It's gonna need a lot more work and as Selmak said earlier there is no guarantee that the Daniel you get back will be the same one that you had before."

"Oh my God!" Sam's hand went to her mouth, her eyes widening alarmingly as she realised the implication of her father's words. "You're talking about brain damage, aren't you?"

"Among other things." Jacob held his daughter's distraught stare for a few moments before turning to the other members of the SGC in the room. "Look, it's too early to tell anything right now. I'm tired and hungry and Sel needs to rest if he is going to be in any fit state for the next round of healing. Let's just see what happens."

"I'll arrange for some food to be brought to your quarters, Jacob." Hammond stepped away from the bedside and made his way toward the isolation room's exit. "People, let's give Doctor Jackson's body some much needed time to assimilate what has happened to it. I suggest we all get some food inside us and some long overdue rest." He looked pointedly toward Sam. "That includes you Major Carter."

"Yes sir." She looked sheepishly away, sliding her gaze toward the cold concrete floor.

"Doctor Fraiser, keep me apprised of the situation, should anything occur that needs my direct attention I will be in my office." He straightened his bulky frame as he prepared to leave the room, once again donning the comportment of the base commander. "Jacob…"

"Be right with you George."

Hammond nodded his head and left the room, the sound of his measured steps receding into the distance.

Jacob removed the healing device from his hand and placed it almost reverently upon Daniel's bed. He felt drawn and tired, the toll of the healing sapping his energy. Holding out his arms, he waited for Sam to step into his embrace, which she did almost immediately.

"Do your ole man a favour kiddo and do what George has requested." He placed a soft kiss in her hair before gently pushing her away from him so that he could get a better look at her appearance. "Don't even think about going against his orders or I'll put you on a charge myself." He smiled softly as a means of taking the edge off his rebuke. "You look like you could use a ton of sleep."

"I'll take first watch, Carter." Jack's voice floated across the room from where he remained standing at the head of Daniel's bed. He twisted his head as he looked around to locate a chair. Finding one, he snagged it with his foot and pushed it until it was nestled against the side of the bed. He sat down in it with a grateful groan. "Teal'c can take second."

"But sir…" Sam pulled away from her father's embrace, indignation hot in her voice, her blue eyes pinning her commanding officer with a piercing look.

"Ah. Ah. Ah." Jack held up a finger in mock warning. "If you are back in this room any earlier than…" he squinted down at his watch, "zero six forty-five…I will have Teal'c pick you up and carry you back to your quarters…you read me Major?"

Jacob fought valiantly to wipe the smirk from his face before Sam could see it. However, he couldn't quite get the image of the big burly Jaffa carrying his beloved daughter over his shoulder in a fireman's carry out of his head.

"Janet?" Sam's voice pleaded sympathy from her friend.

The chief medical officer put down the medical chart that she had been updating and smiled back at her.

"Don't look at me. I agree wholeheartedly with the Colonel."

Jacob watched his daughter intently, wondering if she really had the balls to go against the orders of a couple of Generals, a Colonel and a Chief Medical Officer. From the look in her eyes she certainly seemed to be contemplating it. She noticed his perusal of her, shooting him a look before switching her attention to Teal'c who just raised an amused eyebrow. Finally her gaze returned to that of her CO "I read you loud and clear sir…zero six forty-five."

"C'mon Sam, I'll walk you to your quarters." Jacob draped an arm across his daughter's shoulders.

With a last look toward Daniel's still form in the bed, Sam wearily followed him as he gently escorted her out of the room.

"Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite." O'Neill's soft amused voice followed them to the doorway.

Jacob felt Sam stiffen at his side before she spun around. He turned with her preparing himself for the rejoinder that he knew would be perched upon her lips, but it never came. Instead he watched as she took in the site of the Colonel settling in for his vigil at Daniel's bedside, all signs of his earlier levity gone, replaced once again by his overwhelming sense of anxiety.

A flurry of mixed emotions seemed to sweep across her face and for a brief moment tears filled her eyes before she determinedly blinked them away. Jacob felt her body relax, the tension leaving it incrementally. She moulded herself against his side and wrapped her arm about his waist, a tired smile lifting the corners of her mouth.

"We can go now dad." She took one more look at the scene before her then switched her attention back to her father. "Daniel's in safe hands."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N **I apologise for the lengthy delay that has arisen in posting this second chapter. I hit a wall and my muse didn't want to play ball with me. I knew what I wanted to convey, but had a tough time getting it right. I'm afraid that I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I didn't want to post anything until I thought it was good enough for you all to see. That said, I'm hoping to be able to have another chapter up shortly. I have every intention of seeing this story through to its conclusion, however long that might take.

**Crossing The Meridian.**

**Chapter 2.**

At exactly zero six forty-five the next morning Sam entered the isolation room of the infirmary.

Being ever vigilant Teal'c noticed her arrival immediately, rising from his seat at Daniel's bedside and meeting her halfway across the room. He stopped in front of her, hands clasped behind his broad back, his head inclined to one side as he studied her tired and wan appearance.

"It would appear that your enforced absence has not had the desired effect, Major Carter."

Sam smiled weakly at the Jaffa, thankful that he hadn't elaborated upon his uncannily shrewd observation. Truth was, she hadn't slept well at all, waking almost every hour from a string of nightmares that had gotten progressively worse. Each one had revolved around the same thing, the likely physical and mental state of her friend when, or even if, the healing process proved successful.

"How is he?" She glanced toward the bed, her eyes scanning quickly across the various monitors, reading for herself the symbols and numerical readouts that represented Daniel's up to date medical status.

"DanielJackson's condition remains unchanged since the implementation of the healing process."

Sam bit her lip in worry. She had hoped that there would have been at least a small change in Daniel's condition, an indication that her father's intervention had kicked started a chain reaction in his weakened immune system. That there appeared to be no significant improvement was a cause for concern.

"I guess we have to give it time." She knew that her words were as much for her stoical colleague's benefit as they were for her own.

"Indeed." The Jaffa bowed his head slowly in agreement.

"Go get some rest, Teal'c, it's my watch."

"As you wish, Major Carter."

The Jaffa bowed his head in deference to her and headed out of the isolation room, no doubt to seek out breakfast before retiring to his quarters for a spot of Kel-no-reem.

Sam crossed the rest of the distance to Daniel's bed, seating herself in the chair vacated by Teal'c. Unconsciously her fingers moved toward his heavily bandaged arm, running across the gauze before wrapping themselves around his hand and gently holding it within her grasp. She couldn't help feeling that the sensation was all wrong, missing the tactile feel of touching his warm skin.

"You've got to keep fighting, Daniel." She squeezed the bandaged hand softly. "Do you hear me? You have to keep fighting, no matter how hard it seems."

Even though she hadn't been expecting a response, the unnatural silence and motionless state of his body unnerved her. She ran her eyes across his prone form, letting them rest at his neck, watching his pulse beat slowly in time with the monitor's heartbeat sensor.

Could he even hear her?

Was his ravaged mind in a fit enough state to disseminate her words?

Was his lack of response a sign that his brain might be damaged as her father had suggested?

Would he even survive the further treatments?

She couldn't bear to think of a world without Daniel in it, without the sweet and gentle man that she had come to admire and respect so much. He had become an integral part of her own life and the thought of no longer having him in her world, was even more unbearable. To lose him would be like a powerful beacon being switched off, taking with it all the warmth and comfort that she had derived from its existence, plunging her into a cold and unfathomable darkness.

Angrily she pushed those thoughts roughly aside, not wanting to dwell upon that particular scenario. She couldn't allow herself to wallow in the negative, like the man she had just entreated, she had to fight against those insidious feelings with every fibre of her being.

To distract herself, she returned her attention to the monitors, but the feelings persisted, blurring the readings around the edges of her vision as tears once more threatened to fall. She dashed them away with an irritated swipe of her fingers.

What was wrong with her? Why did she feel as though she was constantly on the verge of falling apart? What good would that be to Daniel? She had to get a hold of herself, she had to find a way to bury the despair that was burrowing its way into her heart and mind and instead find a way to remain positive.

"I'm not going to lose you, Daniel." She clung onto his hand with both of hers, almost willing her own strength to travel down the connection between them and fortify his body. She almost wished that it could be so, that she could take his place and fight this battle for him. It would be so much easier than sitting here doing nothing.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see you here."

The voice caused Sam to turn toward the direction it had emanated from, finding Janet Fraiser leaning against the doorframe, a metal medical binder in one hand, stethoscope draped nonchalantly around her shoulders. A deep frown creased her forehead as she gave her friend a preliminary once over.

"Did you manage to sleep at all last night, because you look like crap?"

"Gee thanks, Janet." One of the doctor's immaculately trimmed eyebrows rose in question, causing Sam to release a tired sigh, resigned at telling her friend the truth. "I probably managed an hour." Janet's eyebrow dropped sharply in consternation and Sam forged on before the inevitable tirade. "I kept having nightmares."

"What about food? Have you eaten anything this morning?" The mothering tone would have annoyed the hell out of her if it had come from anyone else, but she knew that with Janet it was because she was genuinely concerned. Once again she found herself under the doctor's unflinching gaze with nowhere to hide and only the truth to act as a defensive shield.

"I don't suppose jello counts?" The look that she got in return caused her to briefly glance away, the heat of the disapproving gaze scorching her as assuredly as if she had been branded with a hot iron. She knew she was neglecting herself and she knew that she couldn't go on this way and not wind up collapsing from malnutrition and sleep deprivation, but what could she do if she didn't feel hungry and couldn't sleep?

Okay, so she knew what she could do. However, there was no way on this planet or any other that she was going to let Janet sedate her, even for the shortest of time, not with Daniel's fate still hanging precariously in the balance.

"Jello certainly doesn't count as nutritional. It's practically sugar and water." Janet pushed a weary hand through her hair, pushing a tendril around her ear. "If you keep this up, I'm going to have another member of SG-1 lying in my infirmary. At least then I'd be able to hook you up to a glucose drip and make sure that you are getting the rest and nourishment you need." When Sam refused to give her the argument that she was obviously looking for, she sighed. "Honey, you've got to start taking better care of yourself."

"I'll try to eat something later, okay?"

Sam's tiny concession seemed to be enough to spur the doctor forward and she watched as Janet crossed into the room, her movements dulled by her own thinly veiled exhaustion. She stopped at Daniel's bedside, reviewing his chart, her teeth gnawing unconsciously at her bottom lip. Taking out a pen, she wrote down a few adjustments to his medical chart before returning the clipboard to the foot of his bed. Then she turned her attention to the IV tree, adjusting some of the shunts that sent the medication coursing into his veins with deft fingers. When that was completed to her satisfaction she let her gaze drift toward his still body, her eyes settling on his heavily bandaged face.

"Right about now I would do anything, sell my soul if I had to, just to see those baby blues of his." Janet's head lifted up, revealing the full extent of the doctor's anguish for Sam to see.

The Major knew that being so impotent was tearing her friend apart. As a doctor it was ingrained within her to try and help, in any way that she could, but she had found very little in her medical arsenal to treat Daniel's symptoms. Apart from administering ever increasing doses of pain medication, there had been nothing else she could do.

"Well at least the smell has dissipated." Sam tried to put a hopeful spin into the cadence of her voice. "That's got to be a good thing right? I mean…doesn't that indicate that his body is no longer in a state of decay?"

"I wish I knew what to tell you Sam, but I am as much in the dark about this as you are." Janet pursed her lips before continuing. " All I know for certain is that with the level of radiation that Daniel was exposed to, he shouldn't still be alive."

Sam looked down at his body and gripped his bandaged hand harder, wanting so badly to feel his hand squeeze hers in reply. When nothing happened, that pit of despair inside her stomach threatened to open up once more and she feared that this time she might just plummet down into its bottomless depths.

It wasn't that difficult to read the meaning behind Janet's statement. She was just as aware as the doctor that the only thing keeping him alive now was her father's timely intervention. Should that intervention fail, he would quickly relapse into a spiral of degeneration that could only have one outcome.

But had her father's intrusion come too late? Was the Daniel that she knew so well already a faded memory, replaced by this husk of a man lying before her, his mind shattered and scattered to the four winds?

"Do you think he'll be alright?" She looked back up into Janet's concerned brown eyed gaze. "Do you think that when this is over he will be…"she could hardly bring herself to utter the words, "do you think he will be whole?"

"Oh, Sam, honey…" Janet shook her head sadly. "…I just don't know."

The physician and the Major held each other's gaze for a long moment, their shared anguish pouring forth, not knowing what else to say or do in order to buoy each other up.

A sound from the corridor caused them to divert their attention away from the critically sick man before them and to turn it instead toward the doorway that led to the isolation room.

Jacob entered looking refreshed and rested after obviously getting a few decent hours of sleep under his belt. His eyes sought out his daughter's and she saw the frown of disappointment crease his brow upon seeing that she hadn't fared as well as he had. He crossed to her side, pulling her up out of the chair that she had been sitting in and wrapped her in a warm and gentle embrace.

His reaction was still very new to her, only since his blending with Selmak had he allowed this more softer side of his character to show. She was still unaccustomed to this level of closeness between them and its appearance now threatened to overwhelm her already breached emotional defences.

"How are you doing, Sam?" His tone was as soft as his touch had been and she had to swallow the huge lump that formed in her throat.

"I'm fine, Dad."

He looked sceptically at her, his frown increasing, causing wrinkles to appear around his eyes.

"Really…" Sam tried to sound more reassuring, knowing that if she failed she would more than likely be on the receiving end of a lecture from her father. "I feel better than I look." She almost cringed as she saw Janet's reaction over her father's shoulder and quickly looked away from him.

Her saving grace came in the form of the Colonel who took that moment to also enter the room. He looked as tired and haggard as she felt and she silently commiserated with him. He did a quick recon before spying an empty chair in a corner. Gingerly he walked toward it, picked it up and placed it beside the one that Sam had been sitting in. He lowered himself into it with an exaggerated grunt.

"Your knee playing you up, Colonel?" Sam retook her seat, glad that she could deflect the conversation away from herself and instead concentrate it upon her C.O. She watched him as he subconsciously rubbed at the offending leg, a grimace of pain creasing his already exhaustion lined face.

"You know what they say, Carter, it's not the years but the mileage." He rubbed some more at his aching knee, his eyes scanning the medical machinery before sweeping briefly across Daniel's prone body. "How's he doing?"

"Hard to tell." Janet attached another saline bag to the IV tree, removing the empty one and disposing of it. "He's stable, but as for how his body is reacting to Jacob's healing…I haven't a clue."

"_I am ready to perform another healing session." Selmak's voice sounded tinny in the room. "I believe that after this treatment has been administered we will be in a better position to ascertain Doctor Jackson's status."_

Slipping the healing device over his hand, Jacob once more carefully placed the disc over Daniel's chest. The soft amber light shot downward, cascading from the device to fall upon his bandaged body. The now familiar humming of the alien technology filled the quiet room.

"Jonas Quinn's here." The Colonel's words were sharp, his tone not hiding the contempt that he felt.

"What?" Sam turned away from watching her father's ministrations and stared at her commanding officer. "When did he arrive? More importantly why is he here?"

"Came through the gate during the night, as for his intentions…" The Colonel grimaced, a dour look settling in his eyes. "He brought us some of that funky Naquadria stuff. In return he wants asylum, said that by bringing it to us, he's become an enemy of the state."

"Are we going to give it to him?"

The Colonel's gaze turned cold, so cold that Sam wondered why they couldn't feel it in the room. She almost expected frostbite with that look. "What do you think, Carter?"

"With all due respect, sir…what happened on Kelowna… it wasn't Jonas' fault." She couldn't believe that she was actually defending the Kelownan. She didn't really know him that well, he had struck up a report with Daniel, but she had liked something about him, about the way in which he seemed so full of natural curiosity.

She realised with a pang of sadness that he reminded her of Daniel.

"The hell it wasn't." O'Neill's ire resounded in his voice. "He was there wasn't he? He didn't lift a finger, didn't even try to shut the damn thing off. He left that to Daniel and look what it got him."

"He was probably too scared, sir."

"Right…" His eyes narrowed in that way that she had come to recognise as being a prelude to him saying something sarcastic. "remind me again, Carter, how's that any different from him being a damn coward."

Yep…there it was.

"It must have taken guts to come to us with the Naquadria, especially given the fact that the Kelownans aren't exactly our best friends right now." She searched for something else to say, something that might put the young idealistic man that she had met in a better light for the Colonel to see. "You have to admit it takes some balls, sir, to effectively defect and bring something of value over to those who see you as a potential enemy."

"My heart bleeds for him." O'Neill's heated gaze turned toward his second in command and she squirmed a little under its intense heat. "Are you saying that we should forgive him, Major?"

"It was an accident, sir. What happened in that lab wasn't intentional. You can't hold Jonas responsible for how his politicians represent it."

"Those bastards tried to pin the blame on Daniel. They tried to blame a dying man because it was more convenient than to admit to their own failure." His eyes narrowed , his ire igniting once again with unrestrained vehemence. "Maybe you can forgive him, Carter, but I.."

The rest of O'Neill's words were cut off by the sound of an alarm issuing from one of the medical monitors. On the bed Daniel's body started to thrash wildly, his back arching until it made a perfect bow shape, his arms flailing around haphazardly.

"He's having a seizure." Janet turned to one of the nursing attendants. "Get me five hundred milligrams of diazepam stat!" Janet looked across at the two military officers. "You are going to have to hold him down!"

Sam jumped up from her seated position and grabbed at Daniel's flailing arm, ducking out of the way as it nearly made connection with her jaw. Damn, but he was strong, much stronger than she would have expected given the fact that his body was going through so much trauma. At the back of her mind she remembered reading an article somewhere about how patients with brain injuries could become highly combative.

Her heart sank all the way into her stomach as that unwanted piece of information percolated into her consciousness.

Daniel continued to fight against her, trying desperately to pull free of her two handed grip on his arm. Gritting her teeth, she pushed all her body weight into pinning his wayward arm to the bed, trying to stop him from hurting himself or her. Across the other side of the bed she could see the Colonel doing the same thing, with apparently the same level of difficulty.

"Jacob, grab his legs." Janet received the dosed syringe from the nurse and inserted its needle into the IV line, pushing the plunger all the way down.

The thrashing continued unabated, his body convulsing, forcing those holding him down to adjust their hand holds until Sam could literally see the white's of her knuckles through her skin. The effort it took to hold him tightly within her grip was beginning to take a toll on her already depleted strength and she was becoming increasingly worried that the episode was lasting too long, surely this wasn't a normal seizure.

Was it a sign that something very bad was happening inside Daniel's brain?

Gradually the administered sedative began to have the desired effect. Daniel's thrashing slowly began to subside, his body relaxing, the tension leaving his muscles until finally he lay docile and still upon the bed. The screeching sound of the monitor's alarm faded away, leaving those within earshot with a slight ringing sensation in their ears.

"What the hell just happened?" O'Neill looked at the three other people standing around Daniel's bed, his hands still firmly gripping the archaeologist's bicep.

"It looks like he had a massive seizure, Colonel." Janet unclipped her penlight. Gently raising Daniel's right eyelid, she shone the light into his eye. "His right pupil is blown, he needs an urgent CT scan." She called out instructions to her staff and one of them grabbed the nearest telephone. " It's possible that there is some bleeding in his brain." The doctor started to call out more orders to her staff who immediately jumped into action. "I need to get him to a scanner, asap!"

"Jacob, what the hell did you do to him?" O'Neill's anger now turned full force toward the General. He let go of Daniel's arm and made his way around the bed toward Jacob. "I thought you were suppose to help him, not ignite a God damn nuclear bomb inside his skull."

"Sir, that's not fair." Sam took a step toward her father, the need to defend his actions paramount in her mind. "Dad and Selmak are doing their best to try and save him, without their intervention Daniel would already be dead by now."

She watched as the colour left her commanding officer's face, leaving him looking pallid and drawn. She glanced away, shaken by how her words had had such a devastating impact upon him, realising belatedly that she had put into words Jack's worst case scenario.

Damn.

The nursing staff were in a flurry of activity, disconnecting Daniel's body from all but the most essential monitors for his trip to the scanner. When that task was completed they swiftly wheeled him out of the isolation room, the sound of his heartbeat monitor fading slowly in the distance, leaving an empty silence in the abandoned room.

"For what's it's worth, I'm not entirely sure that my actions were to blame for what just happened here." Jacob set down the healing device, placing it upon a trolley laden with medical supplies. "I think something else was at work."

Her father's voice sounded strained to Sam's ears, but it also contained something else, something she couldn't put her finger on.

"Dad, what do you mean?"

"I guess what I'm trying to say…" her father turned toward her, concern evident in his soft brown eyes, " is that I'm not sure that Daniel wants to be saved."

"What?" Both Sam and the Colonel echoed the same response.

"_What Jacob is trying to explain is that we both sensed that Daniel Jackson was actively fighting against our healing attempts." Selmak's words were quietly spoken, but their impact was immediate._

"Ah fer crying out loud, you can't be serious?" O'Neill crossed his arms across his chest defiantly. "The man's in a radiation induced coma, he barely has the energy to muster a breath, so how the hell could he fight you."

"_Daniel Jackson is not actively embracing the healing process. It would appear that a part of him, maybe his subconscious mind, is trying to stop us from succeeding."_

"Why would he do that?" Sam looked from her father to Colonel O'Neill and back again. "Why would he sabotage his own healing? What could he possibly gain from dying?"

"Oh come on, Carter, you're not buying into this crap, are you?" O'Neill's voice was laced with a heavy layer of sarcasm. "Did you hear what you just said? Daniel sabotaging his healing process… of all the absurd…"

"You asked me to stop healing him, Jack." Jacob's words cut off the rest of O'Neill's response. "Yesterday, you asked me to stop the healing, remember?" Jacob inclined his head slightly, his brow furrowing. "Why did you do that?"

Sam had to admit that it was a good question. A part of her had been incredulous when she had heard the Colonel's voice asking her father to discontinue with the healing process. At first she thought that she had imagined it, that it was some kind of sleep deprived hallucination, but her father's reaction had confirmed that hadn't been the case.

"Jack?"

"I just…" O'Neill shrugged his shoulders, his face looking a little puzzled. "I just got this weird feeling…"

"What kind of feeling?" Jacob pressed, his voice suddenly going into full military General mode.

"You know…" Sam watched as the Colonel shrugged again, obviously floundering in an attempt to fish for the right words to convey his thoughts. She knew what it felt like to be under her father's intense scrutiny and words weren't exactly the Colonel's forte. "I just got this hinky feeling, like you get when the hairs stand up on the back of your neck and for a brief moment I thought that maybe we were doing the wrong thing. That maybe it wasn't what Daniel wanted."

"Sir!?" Sam could hear the incredulity in the high pitch of her voice.

"It was for a moment, Carter!" Jack's eyes locked with hers, the heated intensity of his gaze smouldering hot."It was just for a moment. It passed and I realised we were doing the right thing."

"Did it pass?" Jacob asked.

"What?" The Colonel's gaze shifted from Sam to her father.

"Did it pass, Jack, or did you choose to ignore it."

"What the hell is that suppose to mean?" The Colonel's tone was starting to get indigent. Sam knew that he was now on a short fuse and any more prodding from her father was likely to lead to one almighty explosion.

"It means that if you chose to ignore it, we might have a problem." Jacob's eyes narrowed. "Have you thought of the implications if Daniel were trying to reach out to you? That maybe what you felt was his wishes, wishes that you have blatantly ignored."

"Ah, come on…for the love of Mike."

"Think about it, Jack… of all the people in that room, which one of you would Daniel have gone to if he had wanted the inevitable to happen. Whose voice would have spoken the loudest? Who could he have trusted with that final wish?"

"How could he possibly have communicated with me. The man is in a coma. What are you saying Jacob…that he had some kind of out of body experience?"

"Stranger things have been known to happen, sir." Sam's eyes were now focused entirely upon her commanding officer. Her emotions mixed at this new turn of events. "We've seen things we couldn't possibly explain away with science alone, even I have had to admit that." The Colonel turned sceptical eyes upon her and she shrugged sheepishly in return. "If you want an example…how about Kheb? How do you explain all the things that we saw on that planet? How do you explain away all the things that Daniel said happened when he was searching for the Harcesis child?"

"All I remember about that trip, Carter, was Daniel walking around minus his boots, not a happy experience given the lack of fresh air in that building." He grunted dismissively, a small, quirky smile turning up the corners of his mouth.

"Jack.." There was an edge of uncertainty in Jacob's voice.

"No!" O'Neill held up a warning finger. "Enough with this already. Daniel didn't have an out of body experience. He didn't talk to me. I didn't see him, okay! We didn't stand in the gate room and he didn't ask me to let him go."

"Sir!"

"Carter, I said that's enough!" O'Neill turned away, limping slightly as he walked toward the entrance of the infirmary.

"Jack, if you ignored him…" Jacob's tone was grave with unvoiced implications.

"I didn't ignore him, Jacob." Jack turned around to face Sam and her father once more, looking more tired than ever. "My friend was dying…whatever I thought I saw…was an illusion, brought on by stress…I did what I had to do." He glanced at Sam pointedly. "Just like you did Carter when you tried to use the healing device." He closed his eyes briefly before re-opening them. "I did what I had to in order to save the life on one of my team. It's what I would have done for any one of them."

O'Neill started once more toward the entrance of the infirmary, limping his way across the threshold, walking away without a further look in either Sam or her father's direction, leaving them staring in bewildered amazement after him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Crossing The Meridian **

**Chapter 3**

Jack O'Neill was having one bitch of a morning and the way that his luck was running, the prospects for the afternoon were not looking too good either.

After his more than hasty exit from the infirmary, he had made his way down to the commissary for a quick bite to eat and a chance to go over in his mind the uncomfortable and disturbing conversation that he had just had with Jacob.

He sat at a table in one corner of the room, far away from the early morning hustle and bustle of Air Force personnel, his only companions the half eaten sandwich they lay forgotten upon its plate and a muddy coloured mug of tepid coffee. Every now and again Jack would stare into the half drunk mug as though it were an oracle, searching its murky depths for some kind of insight into the mornings events.

What the hell had gone on in the infirmary?

Surely Jacob couldn't seriously believe that Daniel had been fighting his and Selmak's efforts to save him? What kind of screwy idea was that?

Daniel had about as much strength as a newborn kitten, he could barely breathe unaided let alone take on the most wisest of the Tok'ra along with his ex fighter pilot host.

And yet…

There had been that bizarre incident in the infirmary yesterday, an incident that Jack couldn't even begin to fathom. The strangeness of it had tangled around his consciousness like a serious case of bindweed, holding him tightly within its insidious grip and refusing to let him escape its confines.

Then this morning Jacob had unintentionally hit a raw nerve when he had insisted that Jack had ignored Daniel's pleas to let him go. The accusation had wounded the Colonel deeply, thrusting a dagger deep into his heart as surely as if Daniel had plunged the weapon there himself.

He frowned, his mind going over the incident that had occurred when Jacob had started healing his stricken friend. Up to that point he had been so sure that what they were doing was the right thing, so desperate had he been to find a practical solution to avoid Daniel's imminent death. He had even willingly discarded his well honed scepticism and suspicion when it came to all things Tok'ra, in favour of hoping that the latter's intervention would be the miracle that they had all been holding out for.

Jack's heart had been filled with nothing more than genuine relief as Jacob had begun his healing process. He had actually allowed himself a modicum of hope that maybe, just maybe, his friend could be saved. Then things had gotten squirrelly, and he had found himself in a situation as alien as any planet that he had set foot upon within the last five years.

A part of him was still inclined to believe that what he had witnessed had been the result of a combination of extreme stress and tiredness, but the fact remained that something strange had taken place, something that Jack and his very limited knowledge of supernatural phenomena could not explain.

One minute he had been standing with the other's watching his friend struggle to remain in the land of the living, the next he had suddenly found himself in the gate room with a fully healed Daniel. The exchange between them had been brief and more than a little confusing. Daniel hadn't made a hell of a lot of sense and Jack had wondered briefly if it were at all possible he could be dreaming whilst still standing upright. Then as quickly as his surroundings had shifted the first time, so they had shifted again and he had found himself once more in the infirmary.

Hearing his voice call out to Jacob to stop the healing had been as much of a shock to the Colonel as it had been for everyone else in the room. Even now he didn't really understand where those words had come from, he certainly didn't remember thinking them. It was almost as if some entity had taken hold of his body, as if Jack's vocal chords had been usurped for the purpose of delivering that devastating declaration. As soon as the words had registered upon his consciousness, Jack had wanted desperately to call them back.

One glance at Carter's shattered reaction, her blue eyes wide with dashed hope and despair had been enough to break him from the fugue that had settled upon him. Thankfully he had found the words to counteract the ones that he had spoken earlier, the ones that had been destined to consign his friend to oblivion.

But still he couldn't shake the feeling that had been gnawing away at him since his earlier confrontation with Jacob, the feeling that coiled around his stomach and intestines like a troubled anaconda.

Could it have been Daniel?

Could Daniel have used Jack as his mouthpiece?

Had he denied his best friend his dying wish?

Jack shook his head in an effort to rid himself of the confusing thoughts that were whirling around inside. His brain felt like cotton candy, the fragile wisps and fibres threatening to overload with the extra strain being put upon them.

God, he could do with a distraction right about now.

"Colonel?"

Jack shifted his gaze upward from the tabletop to see the worried visage of Sgt Walter Harriman peering down at him.

"Now that's what I call timing." Jack's voice contained a subtle trace of sarcasm.

"Sir?" The sergeant's frown deepened, a small furrow creasing between his eyebrows.

"Never mind Walter, what can I do for you?"

"General Hammond sent me to find you sir. He has been trying to reach you for the last hour."

Jack cast a quick look at his watch and noticed that a whole sixty minutes had disappeared in what had seemed a blink of an eye. "Guess time does fly when you're not having fun."

He stood, pushing back the chair, wincing slightly as the movement awakened the dull throbbing in his problematic knee. He cursed softly as pain registered on his receptors and rounded up his half eaten meal and coffee, placing them within their proper trash receptacles before following Walter out of the commissary.

They travelled silently along the corridor toward the elevator. Once inside Harriman hit the button that would take them up the five floors to General Hammonds office. Beside him Jack wondered why the General wanted to see him and whether it had anything to do with his earlier confrontation with Jacob?

When the elevator doors opened, the Colonel and sergeant went their separate ways, Jack making his way almost on auto pilot toward Hammonds office. As he crossed the briefing room he could see through the open door that the General was in the middle of a phone conversation, so he sat in one of the plush leather seats around the briefing table to wait him out, staring out through the large glass window toward the benign feature of the Stargate. He couldn't stop himself from wondering when SG-1would next embark upon a mission through it and whether they would be a whole team when they did.

"Colonel?"

O'Neill's gaze slid away from the window and he found himself looking directly into the soft blue eyes of his commanding officer. The General gave him one of his patented paternal smiles, his own worry for those under his command evident within the etched frown lines that wrinkled his forehead and face.

"Could I have a moment of your time in my office?" Hammond gestured with his hand toward his open door.

Jack rose from his seat and crossed the short distance into the General's spacious office, his eyes skimming across the photographs and encased medals that adorned the walls and shelves. He heard the General softly close the door behind him and briefly closed his eyes.

That was never a good sign.

He stood at an easy attention, waiting for Hammond to move behind his desk, as befitting the other man's higher rank. Hammond gestured toward him with a curt nod.

"Take a seat, Jack."

O'Neill did as requested, sinking into the chair with a soft sigh of resignation.

"I've just finished a rather protracted conversation with the Joint Chiefs." The General shifted a little uncomfortably in his chair. "I thought you would like to know the topic of that conversation?"

Jack just stared at his commanding officer waiting for him to impart whatever information that he had just gleaned from his superiors.

"I have been given authority by the President to offer Jonas Quinn full diplomatic immunity." Jack pushed forward in his seat, ready to butt in but the General stilled him with a raised hand. "Before you let me know your feelings on the matter, son, there is something else." Hammond paused, his eyes raising slightly to meet with Jack's, their hue darkening visibly. "The President also wishes me to extend to Mr Quinn his heartfelt gratitude for risking both his life and reputation in order to bring to us the sample of Naquadria."

"Of all the bull…"

"There is more, Colonel." Hammond's voice hardened, his use of Jack's rank a noticeable indication that, for this part of the conversation at least, Hammond was now talking to him as the base commander and not as a friend. "It has been decided that Mr Quinn's unique perspective regarding his people's investigations into the uses of the Naquadria cannot be overlooked. As such he is to be given full SGC status effective immediately and allowed complete unconditional access to this base and its resources."

"What the hell…" Jack couldn't believe his ears. His mind harkened back to the time five years previously when he had brought a dishevelled and bewildered Teal'c through the gate. He had promised the reluctant Jaffa that he would receive sanctuary and that his knowledge of the Goa'uld would be of immense use to the people of the Tauri, reassuring Teal'c that his change of heart regarding his former employer would have a beneficial effect in allying him with the people of Earth.

That promise had never materialised.

Instead he had been locked up, dismissed as a prisoner of war, experimented on and treated in such a despicable way that even now it left a bitter taste in Jack's mouth just to think of it. If it hadn't been for the combined efforts of Daniel, Carter and Hammond, the Jaffa would have been carted off to Area 51 and incarcerated indefinitely.

Now this new kid on the block was going to get access to the base without having to endure the humiliation and degradation that Teal'c had had to go through, just because he had information about something that the powers that be couldn't wait to get their hands on.

"Are the Joint Chiefs out of their freaking minds." The quietly simmering anger that O'Neill had been holding at bay since Daniel's exposure to the radiation finally found a vent and spewed forth with unrestrained energy. "The Kelownans nearly blew their entire planet apart! They experimented with a substance so volatile that a tiny amount had the capacity to wipe out their entire world."

"It is thought that it's wider application could be beneficial in our fight against the Goa'uld. The Joint Chiefs have already been briefed upon its potential uses, should we be able to stabilise it. The scientific community in the Pentagon believe it could be incorporated into a defensive mechanism or employed in some way as a weapon that could be used against the System Lords."

"Scientists!" Jack spat the word out with venom, knowing as he did so that he wasn't including the two members of his own team that fit snugly into that category. "So they are just going to give Jonas the keys to the whole shebang?" Jack threw his hands in the air in disgust. "Just like that…no questions asked?"

"Jack…"

"Without having to prove a thing…without having to put on the dog and pony show that Teal'c had to endure. I think the least we could do would be to experiment on him. Maybe use that crap on him to see how it effects the body's tissues." Jack's eyes narrowed sharply, the anger behind his eyes matching that of his voice. "But wait a minute…Daniel's saved him the bother!"

"Colonel!" Hammond warned. "I know you don't like this. If it makes you feel any better I argued strenuously against it, but like it or not Jonas Quinn is a victim of his people just as much as Dr Jackson is."

"A Victim? Oh that's rich."

"Colonel, we have been given our orders. It is not up to us to decide whether or not we implement them. Sometimes, son, you have to do things that go against the grain. Maybe when you have been in the military as long as I have, you'll finally understand that."

The rebuke was a gentle one, but it stung nonetheless.

Jack's tirade deflated as though it were a balloon that had just had all the air let out of it. He sat back in his seat, sliding uneasy fingers through his greying hair.

"Yes, sir."

Hammond was silent and Jack waited for the order to be dismissed, but it never came. Instead the General cleared his throat awkwardly, his hands straightening the desk blotter that had somehow shifted askew during their conversation.

Jack looked at him expectantly and waited.

And waited.

"Oh hell, there's more isn't there?"

"The Joint Chiefs believe that Mr Quinn's abilities would be further enhanced, after he has had the necessary period of acclimatisation, by being deployed as part of a front line field unit."

"General…"

"Your front line field unit to be precise." Hammond sat back in his leather chair, obviously waiting for Jack to catch up with the bombshell that he had just detonated.

It only took a nanosecond for the aftershock to register.

"Now just wait a minute!" Jack lurched out of his seat and began to pace around the room. "They want him to join SG-1?"

"Now hear me out, Jack." Hammond lowered his hands to the mahogany desk, splaying them out against its wooden surface. "The Pentagon feels that Jonas needs to be with a capable, experienced front line unit. One that has seen its fair share of combat and diplomatic incidents. Consequently it was also thought that Major Carter's expertise with alien technology set your team apart from any other with regard to utilising Jonas' particular skills as a scientist."

"I already have my full complement of scientists." Jack's pacing started anew, he turned and looked at his commander over his shoulder. "I don't need any more scientists, besides adding a fifth to the team would knock it out of whack."

"Mr Quinn would be replacing Dr Jackson." The softness in Hammonds voice denoted the uneasiness that he must have felt in imparting that particular piece of information.

Jack spun around and locked eyes with the General, his anger red hot, its vehemence barely held in check. How dare they insist on giving Daniel's place on his team to someone untrained and untrustworthy. How dare they expect him and the other members of SG-1 to just be ridden roughshod over when Daniel wasn't even dead yet.

Oh God!

Daniel.

The pain of that last unexpected thought twisted in Jack's stomach like a knife. They were expecting Daniel to die and in so doing open a slot on the premier team for the Kelownan to effortlessly fill.

Jesus!

Who were these people? Who were they to make such assumptions without the forethought of those that would be left behind.

"They don't give a rats ass about Daniel."

"I'm sorry, Colonel." Hammond rose from his seat and made his way around the desk, coming up to stand at Jack's side. His hand rested on the Colonel's shoulder, squeezing it gently. "I don't like it any more than you do, son, but the truth of the matter is that you are a team member down right now and even if Dr Jackson pulls through this crisis, it will be some time before he will be able to properly resume his duties." The hand squeezed lightly again, offering the General's support. "I managed to argue for a temporary instatement for Mr Quinn, but whether you like it or not Jack, for the time being at least, he is now a part of your team. I will expect you to treat him with the same level of professional decorum that you reserve for all of SG-1"

On the surface it sounded like an order too far, one that Jack couldn't possibly comply with. However, beneath the surface he realised that Hammond wasn't expecting him to be the same man with Jonas as he was with the rest of his established team.

He wasn't asking him to become friends with the man, only to extend to him the professional courtesy that he would give to any other member of the command.

But even that was stretching itself.

"Do I have your word, Colonel?"

Jack looked at the hand lying softly on his shoulder and followed it up to meet the gaze of the man to whom it belonged.

"You have my word sir."

"Good." The soft paternal smile returned. "I leave it to you to break the news to the rest of your team." The General pulled away from him and walked back around his desk. As he prepared to retake his seat, the base telephone on his desk rang. He picked it up on the first ring, sliding the receiver against his ear.

"Hammond."

He listened intently, his eyes going to meet Jack's, his head nodding in acknowledgement of the words being spoken on the line.

"Colonel O'Neill's with me, tell Doctor Fraiser that we will be there in a couple of minutes. Has the rest of SG-1 been notified?" There was a brief pause and Hammond nodded slowly again. "Okay, we're on our way." He replaced the receiver and looked across at Jack.

"Daniel?" Jack stood nervously, waiting the General's reply.

"They have just brought Doctor Jackson back from the scanning machine. Doctor Fraiser wants us to meet her in the infirmary."

Jack grimaced slightly, wondering if the news from the scanner was as bad as Fraiser feared it to be. He turned and headed for the door, hearing Hammond's quick steps behind him.

He went over in his mind the conversation that had just taken place as he crossed the briefing room toward the stairway. Somehow he had to find a way of incorporating Jonas Quinn into the smooth workings of his team. Carter would probably accept him easily, after all she had already tried to plead a case for him. For her, the inclusion of another scientist would be like gaining a new playmate.

Teal'c would be his normal stoic self, so there would be no change there.

The problem, he realised, would be his own reaction to the new team member, especially if things with Daniel didn't work out so well.

He sighed, taking the stairs two at a time, feeling the twinges of pain in his knee with each jarring movement that he took.

He guessed his earlier assumption had been correct.

He was going to have a bitch of an afternoon as well.


	4. Chapter 4

**Crossing The Meridian.**

**Chapter 4.**

Sam knew that she wasn't doing a good job of keeping the anxiety from showing on her face. It was obvious from all the worried looks that she had been getting since she left her lab to return to the infirmary. News always travelled fast on the mountain's version of the jungle telegraph, she was certain that most of the personnel that she had encountered were already in the know as to where she was going and why.

She had just spoken to Janet, who had informed her that Daniel's brain scan was completed and that he was being taking back to the isolation room. Janet had asked that she and the other members of her team be present so that she could inform them of her findings. The doctor's tone of voice during the brief discussion had remained detached, professional and that in itself had Sam very worried.

Did it mean that something was wrong?

Had Janet found something serious during her examination?

The feelings of despondency and despair that had been dogging her all day took that moment to reassert themselves. They pushed aside any feeling of hope that she had been clinging onto and took up residence deep within her mind and heart. She could almost feel the sudden heaviness descend upon her, its darkened mass pushing down until it felt like an oppressive weight on her shoulders.

God!

She really…really hoped she wasn't on her way to hear bad news.

She paused at the elevator, her finger poised over the call button, taking a few deep breathes to fortify her resolve. When she was satisfied that part of her equilibrium had returned, she pushed the button and waited for the elevator to descend.

As always she didn't have long to wait.

Everything in the military seemed to be conducted at double time and that also appeared to extend to the workings of the base machinery. The elevator announced its arrival with a dull ping, its doors sliding open to reveal an empty interior for which Sam was grateful. Stepping into the car, she hit the button that would take her back to the infirmary and waited for the doors to slide smoothly closed.

As the elevator began its silent ascent, her mind went back over the morning's dramatic events.

The confrontation between her commanding officer and father had left her feeling uncomfortable. It wasn't just the fact that she had found herself in an awkward position, defending her father from the Colonel's anger over Daniel's sudden and unexpected deterioration, but it was also because of the revelations that the confrontation had exposed.

Colonel O'Neill had practically admitted to having had a paranormal encounter with her friend in the gate room. He had also revealed that Daniel had asked him to stop the healing process so that he could be allowed to die.

Why would Daniel want that?

Why would he want to abandon all hope of his survival?

Daniel was a born fighter, not the warrior kind because that had come much later and with a good measure of reluctance, but from the beginning she had been aware that his spirit just didn't know how or when to give up.

Why else would he have embarked upon an almost impossible mission to track down and rescue his lost wife? Even when that mission had tragically ended with the death of Sha're, he had faltered only briefly before finding another quest to take its place.

His unfinished business with the Goa'uld system lords was an over-ridding factor in his continued association with the Stargate programme. He had rededicated himself to the task of being instrumental in their ultimate downfall and that need was almost as tangible as that of Teal'c.

Why would he consciously want to throw all that away?

Why would he choose death over life?

It just didn't make sense.

Moreover, she couldn't quite shake the feeling that maybe somehow it might all have been an hallucination of some kind, brought on by the Colonel's anxious and exhausted mind, but if it wasn't…

If death was what Daniel truly wanted…

Had she been complicit in denying him his wish?

Further contemplation of those dark and distressing thoughts were curtailed as the elevator jolted to a halt. The doors slid back to reveal an ubiquitous grey concrete corridor, a clone of the one that she had left behind ten floors below.

Sighing softly to herself, she exited the elevator, turning right and headed down the corridor toward the infirmary. The passageway was almost empty, the exception being a carefully placed supply trolley pushed up against one of the walls. Sam strode past it, the sound of her measured footfalls echoing down the hallway as she quickened the pace toward her destination.

When she reached the bottom of the corridor, she took a swift left turn, then a right, heading toward the rear entrance to the infirmary and the isolation chamber. She didn't want to be confronted by the contemplative stares from the other patients on Janet's ward. She couldn't cope with that right now, so the shortcut seemed the only logical alternative.

Apparently, she wasn't the only one having those thoughts. As she neared the entrance to the isolation room, she saw the tall form of Jonas Quinn leaning against the wall, his eyes closed, his face looking pinched and drawn.

Sensing her approach, he snapped open his eyes, a brief cloud of disorientation slipping across his visage before he blinked it away. He stretched the kinks out of his back as he straightened and glanced toward her, moving his hand toward his mouth to stifle a yawn.

"Major Carter." Jonas pushed himself away from the wall and took a couple of hesitant steps toward her.

For a moment Sam didn't really know what to do, surprised at this unexpected turn of events and somewhat taken aback that he appeared to be alone, his assigned guards nowhere to be seen.

"Jonas, what are you doing here ?"

"Actually, I was hoping to run into you."

"Where are your guards?"

"Apparently, I don't need them anymore." When she gave him a questioning look, he moved a little uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "They were no longer posted outside my quarters."

Sam frowned, wondering whether to believe him or not, her instincts veering toward the latter. It was standard operating procedure for any off world visitor to be escorted around the complex for the duration of their stay. Jonas had only arrived the night before, so it was highly unlikely that those protocols would have been rescinded so quickly, especially as she knew very well that, for at least one member of Stargate command, the man before her represented an off world version of public enemy number one.

She just hoped that Jonas didn't run into Colonel O'Neill any time soon.

"Major?"

The soft sound of his voice broke her from her thoughts, switching her attention back toward the young Kelownan. She took a moment to study his appearance, noticing that his clothing looked uncharacteristically dishevelled, a sure indication of the hurried departure that he had been forced to make from his home world.

"You said that you were hoping to run into me...why?"

"I just wanted to say how sorry I am...," his eyes took on a pained expression, the soft worry lines around his eyes and mouth deepening within his pallid complexion, "...for what happened to Doctor Jackson."

There was heartfelt sincerity in his words and she could see the full extent of his sorrow manifest itself within the soft brown hue of his eyes.

"He was a good man, a selfless and courageous man."

She didn't like the way in which he was referring to Daniel in the past tense, it sounded so final and her friend had not yet given up his fight for survival, but she also knew that all the Kelownan scientists involved in the doomed experiment had already succumbed to the effects of the radiation sickness.

"I know that nothing that I say will change what happened on my planet, but I feel that an apology is in order."

"You have nothing to apologise for." Sam wanted to ease some of the guilt that she felt emanating from him. He didn't deserve the weight of blame that he was obviously carrying. He was one man among many and she was certain that the real people culpable for the shameful diplomatic fallout between their two worlds would not be making their apologies anytime soon. "What happened on your planet was a tragic accident, there was no intent by your scientists, just a naivety toward the destructive power of the substance that they were experimenting with." Sam rested her hand upon his arm. "They were good men too."

His soft brown eyes rose to meet hers, the first vestiges of relief beginning to appear within their depths. His taut posture lessened, and the shroud of guilt that he wore seemed to loosen with the gentleness of her words.

"I still wish to apologise for the way in which certain elements of my government conducted themselves."

Sam smiled softly at him, letting him know without words that his apology was accepted.

After a moment, Jonas returned her smile, his body relaxing noticeably as the last of the tension finally left him.

"Are you headed into the infirmary?"

Sam nodded, feeling her own tension levels rising , the weight of Janet's unknown prognosis weighing heavily upon her, threatening to crush her resolve with its unseen ramifications.

"Can I join you? I'd like to see him."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Jonas."

Her answer had been a truthful one, besides there was still the fact that Jonas didn't have any guards with him. It just didn't sit right with Sam and until she had been made privy to the reasons behind his apparent sudden acceptance, she wasn't too sure about letting him have carte blanche access to certain areas of the base.

Then of course there was the fact that her whole team were right now converging upon the infirmary, that was reason in itself to keep the Kelownan well away. The Colonel was like a grizzly bear prematurely awakened from his winter hibernation, he was hurting and she knew instinctively that he was looking for an outlet for his suppressed anger.

"I just want to pay my respects."

There was such earnestness in his voice and it reminded her of Daniel. In fact many things about the young man standing in front of her reminded her of her friend and she knew that if it were Daniel standing there instead of Jonas, he would have made that same request.

"Okay, but just for a minute."

She turned toward the doorway and a sudden reluctance overwhelmed her. As long as she stayed outside, she could kid herself that everything would be alright, that Daniel would be okay. Once inside she would have to face the consequences of Janet's prognosis, she would have to find the courage to accept it, to deal with it. She knew she was being irrational, that she was letting her emotions get to her and she hated the fact that she couldn't seem to keep a lid on them.

"Major, are you okay?"

Hearing the note of concern etched in Jonas' question, she squared her shoulders and chastised herself for her uncharacteristic show of cowardice.

"I'm fine."

Quickly, before she had anymore time to think about it, she stepped into the room. She felt Jonas fall into step behind her and together they crossed the short distance from the doorway to Daniel's bedside.

Remarkably the bandages had been removed and even more remarkably his skin looked unblemished. Obviously the regeneration was down to the wonders of the Tok'ra healing device, nonetheless, she couldn't help the small surge of delight that followed seeing him once more in the flesh. Without any conscious thought, she picked up his hand, feeling the warmth of his skin as she wrapped her cooler fingers around it.

The welcome return of this tactile gesture filled her heart with a sense of renewed hope.

Beside her, she heard Jonas gasp.

"His skin... it looks undamaged. How can that be?" The astonishment in his voice was palpable.

Sam decided to leave his question unanswered, not wanting to disclose the secrets of the Tok'ra healing device. Instead, she turned her attention back toward Daniel, drinking in his appearance, trying to memorise every line and nuance of his face.

"Hey, Daniel, it's me... Sam."

She raised his hand until she could brush the back of it against her cheek, until she could feel the warmth of his skin against hers. It felt good and she knew that she was doing something so very out of character, something intimate, more intimate than she had ever allowed herself to be with him, but right now she didn't care. She just wanted this tenuous connection with him.

She needed it.

"Carter! What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

The sound of Colonel O'Neill's angry voice startled her, causing her to involuntarily jerk backward. Daniel's hand slipped from her grasp, but she quickly re-established her hold upon it, gently lowering it back down upon the pristine sheets. She turned to face her commanding officer, feeling the onset of the blush bloom hotly across her face, heating the area where Daniel's hand had been resting.

"Sir, I can explain."

"What the hell were you thinking letting him in here."

As the Colonel's words finally sank in, the somewhat lame excuse as to why she had been caught caressing Daniel's hand against her cheek stuttered and died upon her lips.

"Sir?"

"Quinn!"

The Colonel practically marched across the short distance between the doorway and his intended target, a look of thunderous outrage on his countenance. Sam stepped away from Daniel's bedside, inserting herself between her commanding officer and the now terrified Kelownan.

"He just wanted to pay his respects."

"The hell he did..." The Colonel tried to sidestep around her, but she blocked his path. The glare he gave her was red hot, filled with a level of anger that she hadn't seen before. His eyes flicked from hers back to Jonas. "Wasn't usurping his place on the team enough for you... did you have to come here to gloat?"

"Colonel?" Sam placed her open palm against O'Neill's chest, trying the stall his forward momentum, insinuating herself even further between him and Jonas, not liking the waves of anger and recrimination that were emanating from him. "What the hell are you talking about?"

The tactic seemed to work, O'Neill faltered, his gaze leaving the Kelownan's to come to rest upon the hand on his chest. His eyes skimmed up her arm, to her shoulder, following an invisible line until he was looking straight at her.

"Sir, what's going on?"

Her question seemed to douse the fire in his eyes, he blinked a couple of times and she felt his body relax under her hand, he took a step back from her and she lowered her hand to her side, but she didn't step away, still wanting to keep herself as a kind of buffer zone between Jonas and the Colonel.

"Later, Carter."

O'Neill gave Jonas another long hard look before moving several steps backward, putting a reasonable amount of distance between them. Pivoting around on the balls of his feet, he strode toward Daniel's bedside and took up his normal position at the head of the bed.

Sam watched him for a moment before twisting around to look at Jonas, but the Kelownan was looking as perplexed as she felt. Whatever the reason behind the Colonel's outburst, Jonas was as in the dark about it as she was.

"Why don't you go back to your VIP suite and I'll drop by later and let you know how Daniel's doing?"

"Colonel O'Neill hates me, doesn't he?"

Taking hold of his elbow, Sam steered Jonas back toward the entrance to the infirmary, making sure that her back was to her CO.

"I wouldn't say that he hates you, Jonas... he just…" she searched again for the right words to say, ones that wouldn't offend the man in front of her, "…he just doesn't know you well enough yet."

"He blames me for what happened to Dr Jackson," Jonas raised his head and stared straight at her unblinkingly, "he thinks that I could have stopped him from going into the lab…that perhaps it should have been me that had gone in his place."

If Sam had thought that Jonas had reminded her of her stricken friend before, his words just now confirmed it. Apparently Daniel wasn't the only one that had an uncanny knack for voicing the emotive feelings of others. Jonas seemed to have that same kind of intuition.

It endeared him to her even more, not because of his similarity to Daniel, but because they seemed to share the same sense of integrity, the same sense of responsibility for their actions.

"You have to understand that the Colonel is hurting a lot right now. He and Daniel go back a long way…they are best friends. It's not easy watching someone that you care for go through something like this and the Colonel isn't exactly the kind of person that is open with his emotions. He tends to bottle things up and he looks to acquire targets in order to vent his feelings."

Unfortunately for Jonas, the Colonel had decided to acquire him as his target of choice.

She continued to steer Jonas toward the doorway, wanting to get him as far away from the Colonel as she could, wanting to give them both a little breathing space.

"I promise I'll keep you posted."

She let go of his elbow and started to turn away, but Jonas placed his hand on her arm, squeezing it gently, bringing her attention back toward him.

"Colonel O'Neill isn't the only one that cares deeply for Doctor Jackson." He slipped his hand away from her arm. "You care a great deal for him too, Major Carter, maybe more than you're suppose to."

She had to swallow against the lump that had suddenly decided to take up residence in her throat. How had he been able to see right through her?

Was she being that transparent?

If that were the case, then she would need to get her act together and fast. She couldn't afford to let others see what the Kelownan had.

"I'll talk to you later, Jonas."

He nodded softly and turned away, walking slowly back along the corridor toward the elevator that would take him back to his quarters. She watched his retreating form until he rounded the corner, then walked back into the infirmary.

She stood silently next to the Colonel, wanting desperately to hold onto Daniel's hand, but fighting the urge to do so. Instead she shoved her hands into the pockets of the BDU's, afraid that by giving into the temptation, she might be telegraphing something that she wasn't ready for anyone else to see right now.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Well as you can see I've dusted off this ole chestnut and resurrected it. I know it's been a while since I last posted a chapter for this story, but it's never been that far from my mind. My problem is that it is a real so and so to write, what with all the characterisation. Usually my work centers solely upon Sam and Daniel, but with this story all the other characters of the show are coming out to play as well.**

**As a consequence, it means that it is really hard to write, especially as I'm pretty tough on myself when it comes to trying to keep the characters true to their counterparts in the show. It takes a long time and a lot of re-writes before I get a chapter that I'm prepared to post and usually it means that I have to take a long rest in a darkened room afterwards. :-) That said, I can't seem to let this one go, even though I have other stories in the pipeline or, as with Pariah, in progress. **

**I guess what I'm trying to say is that it might be a long time before another chapter is posted, but rest assured that one will be, once I've summoned up the courage to write the next installment. **

**I really would be glad to hear what you all think. It is your wonderful reviews and comments that keep me doing this fantastic hobby of writing, especially as I should be spending time with my family instead of agonising over whether Sam would really do that or whether Jack is a little out of character. **

**Any way I hope you enjoy!**

**Crossing The Meridian**

**Chapter 5**

All those years of medical school hadn't prepared her for the impact of the last seventy two hours.

Janet Frasier felt as if she were running on empty and if she had taken a moment to be truthful with herself, she would have known how insightful her hypothesis had been.

She had barely slept since Daniel had been brought into the infirmary and she couldn't remember the last time that she had actually sat down to eat. Any and all sustenance had been consumed standing, while she had tried to come up with ways to alleviate Daniel's suffering. In the end her valiant efforts had been for nothing, and she had reluctantly turned over his treatment to Jacob and Selmak and their timely intervention with the alien healing device.

It hadn't been easy watching one of her closet friends succumb to an illness so diabolical that it defied description. She wasn't sure that she would ever forget the stench of his decaying flesh, or the stricken look of horror upon Sam's face when she had come into the infirmary to say her personal goodbye.

Janet sighed as she picked up her stethoscope, draping it around her shoulders in a manner that had almost become second nature to her. She dropped her hand toward the desk and picked up her reports, sifting through them, reading the various printouts that made up the analysis of Daniel's brain scan.

She took a moment to compose herself, to once again don the mantle of the medical practitioner. Over the last couple of days it had become harder and harder to remain clinical, but she knew that she had to, not just for her own sake, but for those that depended upon her.

Satisfied that she had her emotions under some semblance of control, she walked out of her office and travelled the short distance to the isolation room. She stopped in the entryway and focused her attention upon the three remaining members of SG-1 waiting patiently at Daniel's bedside.

At least they were relatively fit and healthy, relative being the operative word if she took both the Colonel's and Sam's evident exhaustion out of the equation. She ran her eyes over them with practiced ease, thankful that they hadn't yet noticed her appearance in the room, for it gave her a moment to watch them unguarded.

A doctor could pick up a lot of things concerning her prospective patients during unguarded moments like these.

The first thing that she noticed was the tension between Sam and the Colonel. They seemed to be deliberately avoiding each other, in fact whereas they usually stood within close proximity of each other, they now had an enforced no man's land between them. Obviously something had occurred during her absence that had led to this uncharacteristic and rather unsettling behaviour.

Evidently Teal'c had noticed it too because the normally stoical Jaffa kept sneaking surreptitious glances in their direction, and Janet couldn't help noticing the worried frown that creased his normally smooth forehead.

The next thing that she noticed was the telling absence of affection from Sam toward Daniel.

Ever since the accident, Sam had become more tactile around the stricken archaeologist, touching him whenever she could, trying to connect with him even when he was swathed in layer upon layer of bandages.

Now there was no sign of it, in fact Sam seemed to be steadfastly avoiding any contact at all, to the extent that her hands were shoved inside the pockets of her rather bedraggled looking BDU's.

Janet couldn't help wondering if this was the reason behind the tension that she had seen. Had Colonel O'Neill walked in on one of Sam's personal moments with Daniel? Had he seen the way that Sam held his hand, the soft pleading words that she imparted to him as she tried to coax him back from the edge of the abyss?

Had Colonel O'Neill interpreted it as being something unprofessional and not befitting the conduct of a military officer?

Had he given her a lecture on impropriety?

Hadn't he seen what Janet had?

Perhaps the Colonel didn't realise that behind those tender touches, those gentle and impassioned entreaties, were feelings that Sam wasn't even aware of.

Janet heard footsteps coming from the corridor behind her and turned to find both General Hammond and Jacob Carter making their way toward her. She acknowledged their presence with a nod of the head and both General's replied in kind.

"After you, Doctor."

Hammond made a forward gesture with his hand.

Janet thanked him with a smile and entered the room.

Immediately the posture of Sam and Colonel O'Neill changed as they both stood to attention. Teal'c took up his usual position, back ramrod straight, hands clasped behind his back.

"At ease people." Hammond crossed the short distance to the bed, taking up a similar position to that of the Colonel, Janet went to stand next to him, leaving Jacob to stand at the foot.

The symmetry of their poses, with those of SG-1, wasn't lost on the doctor.

"As you know, Doctor Fraiser has called us all here to give us an update on Doctor Jackson's condition." The General turned toward his Chief Medical Officer. "Doctor Fraiser..."

Janet cleared her throat.

"The CT scan showed that Daniel suffered a significant bleed in his brain, which was a direct consequence of the massive seizure that he suffered a few hours ago." Janet's eyes rose from the medical folder that she had been reading from. "Now normally with this kind of inter-cranial bleed, it would have been necessary to perform an operation to stem the bleeding and alleviate any swelling to the brain, but thankfully with the help of the Tok'ra healing device this wasn't necessary."

"Way to go, Jacob."

The Colonel gave Sam's father an appreciative smile.

"However," Janet watched that smile dissolve as he detected the seriousness of her tone, "the extent of the damage done to Daniel's brain is still uncertain."

"Wait a minute," The Colonel's stare bored into her, flecks of concern skirting around the periphery of his gaze, "didn't you just say that Jacob sorted that out."

Janet sighed and took a moment to straighten out the kinks in her paperwork, knowing that the difficult part of this conversation was about to take place.

"No, Colonel, what I said was that with Jacob and Selmak's help, we didn't have to embark on invasive brain surgery."

"So, what exactly are you saying, Janet?" Sam asked.

Janet turned her attention to Sam, noting the anxious concern that seemed to radiate from her friend, seeing the deeply etched worry lines that had now embedded themselves around her eyes, adding to the overwhelming sense of exhaustion that already lined her face.

"Given the circumstances surrounding his present condition, it's hard for me to be able to give a definitive prognosis. There are areas of Daniel's brain that have been affected by the bleed and until he regains consciousness we will not be able to ascertain what particular areas have been damaged."

"What kind of damage are we talking about?"

"At the moment, we have to treat Daniel as though he were recovering from a stroke. We got to him early and thanks to Jacob and Selmak we were able to reverse most of the damage, but... and I can't stress this enough, some areas remain damaged. With luck, he might wake up with nothing more than a brief loss of memory and hopefully with time that might right itself."

"What's the worst case scenario, doc?" The Colonel asked, his voice so devoid of emotion that Janet looked up from the notes that she had been consulting, noticing as she did that O'Neill's face had gone into full military lockdown mode.

Since the day that she had become the SGC's chief medical officer, Janet had seen that look on the faces of many of the patients she had treated. It was the face of the combat veteran, the one that seasoned warrior's wore when they were afraid to let even the barest semblance of fear show on their faces.

"It's hard to say, Colonel, but I guess the worst case scenario would be that Daniel has suffered long term or even permanent damage to the areas of his brain that deal with speech or motor skills."

Sam's gasp was audible and the Major's hand moved involuntarily to cover her mouth as the shock of Janet's words sank in.

"Jacob..," General Hammond turned to his trusted friend, "couldn't you use the healing device to heal the brain damage?"

Jacob fractionally lowered his head, an indication that he was going to let his symbiote answer that particular question.

"_The damage done to Doctor Jackson's body as a result of the radiation poisoning was severe. As a consequence, many of the blood vessels in his brain have become tenuous and thus too fragile for prolonged use of the healing device. In fact, it is my belief that exposure to the healing device may have caused the earlier seizure. I therefore believe that its continued use should be restricted and that Doctor Jackson's body should be given time in which to repair itself."_

"Does that mean that Daniel Jackson's body will once again become ravaged by the radiation poisoning?" Teal'c asked.

Teal'c had remained silent throughout Janet's prognosis, only now did he speak, and as always with the Jaffa, it was to ask a pertinent question, one that Janet knew was in the mind of everyone present in the room.

"Daniel appears to be holding his own, at least for the time being," she took a moment to study her patient. His skin still showed a healthy hue and there were no signs of the reappearance of the lesions that had overwhelmed his facial tissues twenty four hours earlier. All the monitors indicated that his condition remained stable, "with any luck the effects of the radiation poisoning will not reappear, but this is all new territory for me, so I can't be a hundred percent certain. In the event that Daniel suffers a setback, then we would have to re-evaluate whether to take the risk of another seizure by using the healing device again."

The Jaffa bowed his head solemnly.

"Janet, how long before Daniel starts to show signs of waking up?"

There was a quavering tone to Sam's voice, as though her vocal cords were becoming as tense as the rest of her body. It also told Janet that her friend was struggling emotionally with the news that she had been given and that she was trying really hard to hold onto whatever tenuous thread she had that was keeping her from totally breaking down.

"I'm afraid that that is the sixty four thousand dollar question." Taking her penlight out of her breast pocket, Janet gently lifted one of Daniel's eyelids. She shone the light into his eye, a smile of satisfaction crossing her lips as his pupil dilated in the beams narrow light. She repeated the procedure with his other eye, glad that both appeared to be reactive. "I'm pretty optimistic that it won't be too long, the results of his EEG scan were pretty positive, but with brain injuries it's hard to be exact."

Sam nodded softly and took a step forward, her body brushing up against the side of the bed. Her hand reached out toward Daniel's, but at the last moment she hesitated, it lingered over his for a moment longer before she reluctantly pulled it away, using her fingers instead to run through her hair.

Janet's eyes narrowed at Sam's unaccustomed hesitancy.

What was going on with her?

Briefly the Major's eyes met with those of the physician, their blueness dulled by the tumultuous emotions that Janet could see in their depths. Their gazes held for a moment longer before Sam looked away, a tiny blush cresting her cheeks.

The doctor turned her attention back to her patient, but made a mental note to keep an eye on Sam. She didn't like what she had witnessed, didn't like the fact that Sam seemed to be deliberately repressing her natural inclination to connect with Daniel.

Why?

"Thank you for your update, Doctor Fraiser, it's been most informative." General Hammond turned to face her, "Keep me apprised of any further developments and let me know at once should Doctor Jackson show any sign of regaining consciousness."

"I will, sir."

The General stepped away from the archaeologist's bedside, gently tapping Jacob on the shoulder as he walked past him.

"Jacob, there are a few things I would like to discuss with you in my office."

"Sure, George."

The base commander and the Tok'ra freedom fighter turned and left the room, followed shortly thereafter by Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c.

It left Janet with an opportunity to talk with Sam.

The doctor walked around the bed to where Sam was standing, moving past her toward the IV tree that stood at its head. She adjusted some of the shunts, smoothing out the intravenous lines that carried the vital medication into Daniel's arms.

"Sam, do you think you could help me for a second?"

"What do you want me to do?"

"Just hold his arm steady for a moment. I need to replace his lines."

"Shouldn't I get one of the nurses..."

"You've helped me with this before, in fact you've done this so many times over the years with one or other of your teammates, that you're practically an honorary nurse. I'm confident that you know what you're doing." Janet looked away from the IV tree and pointedly looked at her friend. "It's just a question of holding his arm still and letting him know that you're there, just in case it's a little painful when I replace the needles. It'll only take a couple of minutes."

Janet watched the hesitancy sweep across Sam's face, saw the indecision flow across her visage as though she were caught between what she wanted to do and what she felt she had to do.

With a reluctance that surprised the doctor, Sam placed her hands upon Daniel's arm.

Janet didn't know what the hell was going on with her, but she had every intention of stopping whatever it was right there and then.

"Sam, what's going on?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

The defensive tone of her voice told the doctor that she knew exactly what she had been talking about.

"I'm not going to let you insult my intelligence by trying to pretend that I believe that."

"Janet!"

"Don't Janet me." Janet's frustration at her friend's stonewalling erupted and she pinned her with an aggrieved stare." In case you've forgotten I'm a doctor. I've been trained to be observant, trained to see things that other, less qualified people might miss, so don't try and tell me that nothing's going on when I can clearly see that there is."

"It's nothing," Sam looked away, glancing down at the tiled floor at her feet, "I guess the exhaustion is finally catching up with me."

"Usually I would buy that, especially given how exhausted you are, but that doesn't explain why you're suddenly treating Daniel as though he were a leper."

Sam's head shot back up, her blue eyes catching those of the doctor, the pain and hurt that she felt at the physician's remarks clearly visible.

"Janet, how could you..."

"Are you going to deny it?" Sam was about to interject, but Janet hurried on. "Ever since he came back from Kelowna you have been at his side, urging him on, telling him not to give up, telling him what he means to everyone . You used every available opportunity to connect with him, to touch him, even through those puss stained bandages. So tell me this... why... why when his skin is almost back to normal, when all the lesions have disappeared, are you now so hesitant to touch him?"

The doctor watched as Sam's eyes filled with tears. A few breached their confinement, running down her pale cheeks to teeter upon her chin before dripping silently onto her uniform.

"Honey, nothing's changed. He needs your touch just as badly now as he did when he was dying, maybe more so. He needs to know that you're there, that you're waiting for him."

Sam softly shook her head, as though she were trying to deny the truth of Janet's words.

"Janet... "

"He needs to know how much you want him to come back to you."

The two women stared at each other and the room became uncomfortably quiet, only the sound of the softly beeping monitors around Daniel's bed breaking the stillness. Janet hadn't intended to voice her growing suspicions aloud, she hadn't meant for Sam to hear them, but the heated exchange between them had resulted in it inadvertently slipping out.

"It's not like that, Janet."

Sam's voice was a soft whisper, the words barely audible.

"Isn't it?"

Janet could see the warring emotions as they played across the surface of her friend's face.

"Daniel's my friend, he's my best friend. Of course I care about him, just as I care about Teal'c and the Colonel. If either one of them were lying in that bed, I would have reacted exactly the same way."

Janet crossed the short distance that separated them, laying a gentle hand upon Sam's arm.

"I've watched you with him. I've seen the way you touch him, seen the pain in your eyes and heard the pleading tone of your voice. As much as you would like to think that you're not acting any differently around him, you are. I'm pretty certain that you wouldn't act the same way around the Colonel or Teal'c as you have been around Daniel." Janet gave her a gentle smile. "But then I think you already know that."

Sam looked like she was about to refute that last remark, but then she looked down at Daniel, at his motionless body upon the bed and all the fight seemed to leave her.

"God, is it really that obvious?"

"Only to those who know where to look." A thought suddenly struck the doctor. "Is that why there's tension between you and the Colonel? Has he noticed too?"

Sam's eyes rose back up to meet with Janet's, they widened in puzzled confusion, then as comprehension of Janet's question sank in she abruptly shook her head.

"No, that was because I let Jonas Quinn into the infirmary so he could pay his respects. The Colonel walked in while he was here and things got a little ugly." A frown etched its way between her eyebrows. "There's something going on that I'm not party to, at least not at the moment. I think it has something to do with Jonas."

Janet nodded her head.

"Whatever's going on with the Colonel, it can wait." Janet's hand squeezed her friend's arm reassuringly. "Right now I need you to be here for Daniel. I don't know how much longer he is going to be unconscious, but he needs all the help that he can get if he's going to find his way back home. He needs you to be strong for him, Sam, he needs you to become his guiding light."

Sam's teeth worried at her bottom lip.

"I want to be that guiding light, Janet, more than anything I want to be the one that brings him home..."

"Then why am I sensing a but coming?" Janet asked.

A look passed across Sam's face, a look that said more than a thousand words could have conveyed and suddenly Janet knew the answer to that question.

"You're afraid of being too transparent. You're afraid that the Colonel or General Hammond might see what I've seen?"

"It's not just you, Jonas noticed it too and he hardly knows me." Sam looked down at the archaeologist, the fingers of one hand unconsciously smoothing across his forearm. "I'm not supposed to be having these kinds of feelings, not for someone who is on my team, not for someone who I spend the better part of my day with. It's unprofessional, furthermore it's dangerous. We go into combat together, Janet, we watch each other's backs, my having feelings like this could compromise the team."

Janet crossed her arms, shaking her head.

"We can't always choose who we fall in love with, Sam. It's a cliché, but it's true."

"I'm not in love with him!" Sam snapped.

"Aren't you?"

The Major closed her eyes, sucking in a deep breath and letting it back out in a hurried rush.

"God, this is so screwed up."

"Look, I can't tell you what to do for the best, that's your decision, but right now the man lying in that bed needs you. Dial back the feelings if you must, but don't deny him that connection that you have because it might be the only thing that gets him through this."

Sam nodded softly, one hand moving from Daniel's forearm to come to rest against the archaeologist's cheek.

For a moment her eyes travelled across his face, a wistful expression pulling up the corners of her mouth into a sad smile.

"Daniel... Janet's going to change your medication lines now, it might hurt a little, but I want you to know that I'm here. I'm right here."

Janet moved back to the IV tree, switching off the shunts so that she could change the lines. The process took less than a minute and when she was finished she returned to her friend's side.

Sam's hand was caressing Daniel's face, the tenderness of her touch was enough to convince the doctor of the Major's true feelings toward her stricken friend.

"I'm not even sure if he feels the same way as I do, but sometimes I catch him looking at me and what I see in his eyes almost takes my breath away, but then he'll say something or do something and the moment is lost and I'm left thinking that maybe I've imagined it." Sam looked toward Janet, an earnest expression on her face as the tears threatened to fall once again. "What if I've waited too long to tell him how I feel? What if the Daniel I get back isn't the Daniel that I..."

She forcefully bit off the rest of her words, but their meaning hung in the air between them, unvoiced, but heard all the same.


End file.
